Valley veteran has keen memories of Service in Korea

By GLEN PARKER Published November 11, 2012 - 4:15am Last Updated November 11, 2012 - 6:32am

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Art MacIntosh holds a certificate of appre­ciation he received that marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. (GLEN PARKER)

MEADOWVALE — Art MacIntosh, 82, looks younger than his age.

The Annapolis County resident served 35 years in the Canadian Forces serving in all three branches — army, navy and air force.

If you have time, he’ll tell stories about those years, but when Remembrance Day rolls around, his thoughts go back to 1951 and the year he served with the Royal Canadian Regiment as a signalman with a machine gun section.

The one thing that stands out the most in his memory is that the Canadian troops there were not very well equipped.

“We were out manned and out gunned by the opposition,” he recalled.

The Enfield rifle the Canadian troops carried was a “19th-century rifle,” while the 81-millimetre mortar his regiment used was “not near as accurate as the Chinese mortar,” he said. The Sten machine gun was “a piece of junk and unsafe” while the Bren gun, a larger machine gun, was “the only piece of good equipment we had.”

Despite the questionable equipment, he said the morale among the Canadian troops was good.

“We were all so young and we thought we were well enough trained to take care of ourselves,” MacIntosh recalled.

Little things have stayed in his mind through the years. Like the day he was on sentry duty, standing in a gun pit, when he heard something crunch under his boot. He bent over to find a piece of enemy propaganda.

MacIntosh recited the note’s contents:

Whatever your colour, race or creed

We are all plain folks indeed

Striving for a world of peace

If you go home, the war will cease.

“It was signed: ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Chinese People’s Volunteers,’” MacIntosh chuckled.

“They fired them over in a shell that burst and the leaflets came floating down on us.”

It was all part of the politics of war.

MacIntosh noted that Korea has faced conflict since the time of Genghis Kahn, yet the country has still achieved success.

“When I was there, the country was completely wrecked and yet the Korean people (today) have prospered.”

Much of his time these days involves being a caregiver for his wife, Verna, who cannot get around on her own.

“I keep active,” he said.

For years, MacIntosh kept in touch with some of the soldiers he served with. Now, almost all of them have died.

MacIntosh attends the Remembrance Day service in Kingston every year. There he pauses and remembers those comrades.

Originally from Liverpool, he left home when he was 15. He joined the forces with the intention of going back to school with the assistance of the Veteran’s Act.

“There were about eight of us from Liverpool that enlisted. As far as I know, I’m the last one,” he said.

He writes a little poetry of his own. Here is a verse from his poem Hill 355: